Up that cul-de-sac again.

Back again.  Nothing new to say, but I'm stuck.  Utter madness, I have all the world and beyond for subject matter and I can't get anything finished, or on some days even started.  (I know...I know...a big part of it is the situation we're all in, plus my wife's having a bad time healthwise, so a lot of the time I'm in the wrong mindset...all things many of us share on POL.  Thought I'd get that said, and out of the way.) It's frustrating because I've got more time for art now, very shortly other things will demand attention.  The garden, and when things ease, I must try to get my wife out more on her better days.  All that will be great. Back to art.  I keep starting something.  Make silly mistakes. Lose interest.  Maybe I've become hyper-critical of my stuff because it's an excuse to not finish anything. Here's a couple of sketches done recently.  A fault I have is getting my head down literally, and then when I stand back mistakes shout at me.  The first is supposed to be Burke & Hare, the body-snatchers.  I made a right hash of the man on the right. Started sketches for a retro sci-fi pic, mainly to get ideas.  Thought it was going well, until I stood back.  The girl with legs has a kink in one of them.  The dog head was going to be on one of those 1950's style aliens...where you stick anything on a human body.  Lost interest.  Here's the sketch... I think I'll have 'I wish I'd stepped back more' put on my headstone. I thought I mustn't lose interest.  Tried another sci-fi concept pic.  Took care...actually stood back a couple of times.  But I lost interest...the sketch below is only half a page in my sketch-book, I usually fill the page. Nothing much wrong with this, except I lost interest in it. I like Art Deco.  I'll do a pic in the style of Tamara De Lempicka (I thought), an iconic Art Deco artist...(do a search for art deco art and half the images will be hers.)  I'm not sure she's a good artist, but I absolutely love several of her paintings.  My idea was to use a photo as a ref, and try to paint it in her style. Wrong idea, her faces are distorted slightly, using a realist face doesn't work...at least not for me.  Here's the pic with a real Tamara painting in case you don't know who I'm talking about. You'll see my pic (on left) is nothing like her style.  It was, but looked horribly wrong.  (Wish I'd taken a pic of that stage).  As I'd used water soluble coloured pencils, I was able to lift most of it with water apart from the hair.  I'd painted that in the wood-shaving style Tamara uses for hair (see right pic).  What you're looking at is me having failed to get her style, trying to turn it back into a 'normal' painting.  I managed to 'salvage' the face, but couldn't lift enough of the hair, so that doesn't really work.  So, I've ended up with a picture nothing like I'd hoped, and one I normally wouldn't paint. I can copy her work, but that wasn't the idea.  Here's a copy I made of her painting 'Woman in Green'.  It's done in watercolour. I said I'm not sure how good an artist she is...Her left arm looks wrong to me.  I've carefully copied it even though I thought it was wrong.  No matter, this is one of her paintings I really like.  I suppose when you 'stylize' you can get away with these things. So, I'm busy driving up cul-de-sacs.  I've thought of another retro sci-fi pic.  I like that genre.  Here's my scribble sketch of it... Might not mean much to you, it took moments to draw, but it's helpful to me.  I thought of having a purple sky and slapped some on the sketch...doesn't work...won't have a purple sky.  Now I've said all this, I will at least try to finish this one. I guess when you're up a cul-de-sac, all you can do is turn around and start again. (This is my equivalent of a chin-wag at the art club, which we can't do at the moment).

Yes Heather, I know many of us are in the same position.  I too envy those who seem to be sailing along regardless.  It's annoying to me that I'm not, I should be producing more work, not less. Linda, I think the left arm on the 'woman in green' painting is wrong.  Our elbows are roughly in line with our navel.  The woman's standing with her left hip raised.  Her navel is shown, the right arm seems correct as the elbow is slightly raised.  Her left upper arm is too long, the elbow should be higher than her navel.  To convince myself, I assumed her pose in front of a mirror, my left elbow was much higher than in her painting.  We are talking about my copy...this is quite old, but I used the grid method to get everything in the painting in the right place.  (None of this detracts from my appreciation of the painting...it's just an observation).  I'll happily concede to all errors in my drawings, they're all made up with my nose far too close to the drawing.

Being critical of our own work is normal, Denise.  I agree with what you say.  I meant that maybe in the present circumstances I/we are perhaps more browned off and critical than we should be.  Although, I'm always getting things wrong, so there's plenty to be put off by.  A few people seem unaffected by what's happening, I wish I could be. I may go back to something like that sci-fi sketch, Jenny.  Thank you for the encouragement.  I often press on regardless hoping to salvage something.  I've just had a couple of weeks where I couldn't be bothered.  I tried to produce something from my failed art deco pic (above).  That was to turn it back into a regular image, but I wasn't thrilled with the result. Talking about it helps.

The 'not standing back' fault has been with me since I started drawing.  I must do it more often, but I've been telling myself that for the last seventy-odd years.  I've always had a slightly shaky hand.  Way back I asked a doctor about it, he did some tests but found nothing wrong.  'Try relaxing' was the sum total of his advice.  So Robert, picking up the long handled brush is not on the agenda for me.  I have to hold my pencil/pen/brush near the business end.  Not ideal.  Standing back holding a brush at arms length is the way to go, but it's not for me. We've all got our own inbuilt personal critic, and that's how it should be.  In times like these, that critic inside our head gets as fed up as the rest of our brain...he/she gets the hump and starts getting over-critical and negative.  I know this, but it doesn't always help.  Then, of course, there's the simple fact that I do often mess things up.  That's going to happen.  During the past dire year, I've had three periods where I went right off the boil on art.  It'll pass.  I wish I had Linda's methodical approach. In the majority of my pictures I just make things up from my imagination, since I can't know what everything looks like I'm bound to make a lot of mistakes.  Despite all this, I find it the most satisfying way to work.  Got to keep plugging away.  After all, in the great mythology of making art, the next picture could be the one I've always dreamed of making.

Thank you Dixie.  I won't be giving up, drawing is part of my life.  But like everything in life it blows hot and cold.